His Sidekick, Distaff Counterpart, right-hand man or woman, love interest (specially the ladies of the Tsundere or Broken Bird kind) or superior jolts him back to his senses with a sharp slap or a straight-up punch to the face, and occasionally a retort for him to get his head out of his ass already (see entry title for the archetypal one). The shame-faced hero says something along the lines of "Thanks. I needed that." Less appreciatively he'll say "Not even my dad hits me!", but will eventually calm down.

Alternatively in a program wanting to limit the potential for imitation violence, a glass of cold water may be used to bring the subject back to their senses.

The MythBusters tested a myth based on this trope and found that — at least when dealing with someone who's merely tired and frazzled — a slap to the face does help the slapped person regain his or her focus. Apparently the surprise and minor pain of a slap kicks in the 'fight or flight' response and temporarily boosts adrenaline and related hormones. Nevertheless, it should be applied with extreme caution, as smacking someone when you don't know what's wrong with them can easily do more harm than good.

Examples:

Other examples:

Parodied in The Far Side, where a man wakes up as just a head and screams "AAAAAH! DOCTOR, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH MY BODY!?" The doctor slaps him and he says "Thanks, I needed that."

In one Sherman's Lagoon stripe, Filmore begins flipping out over the tidal wave that's set to wipe out the lagoon. Sherman promptly gives him the slap, but says "Thanks, I need that" himself.

Filmore:I'm supposed to say that.

One FoxTrot strip has Peter about to spray Roger with the garden hose when, while trying to trim the hedges, he ends up hallucinating that he is back inside watching baseball after his tools "melted."

Fan Works

Gohan had to punch Goku in the cheek in an attempt to get Goku to snap out of being frozen in terror after Vegeta went Super Saiyan 3 in Goku's Wish: The Return of Broly. Subverted in that it doesn't quite work.

The Child of Love: In chapter 9 Misato is trying to get Shinji moving to go with her and save Asuka, but the sudden shock has paralized him, so she resorts to slap him to get him focused:

Misato:"Grab your stuff off the floor and put it on in the car! I told you, there's no time to waste!"Shinji:"Will you at least tell me what's going on!!!!?"Misato (losing patience):"ASUKA'S GONNA GIVE BIRTH SOON!!!!!! Now hurry up, Shinji-kun!"Shinji:"No...what the...?"He stands there trembling.Misato:"Hurry UP!"Shinji:"I..."Misato slaps him. Shinji doesn't even flinch.Misato:"You're supposed to be a man now. ACT like a man! Come with me, NOW!"He then grabs his clothes off the floor, and Misato half-drags him to the car, where Kaji is waiting for them.

The One I Love Is: After killing the last Angel Shinji feels more depressed and lonelier than ever and he implies he wants to commit suicide. Misato slaps him and points out that if he dies all hurt his friends went through and all sacrifices they did will be meaningless.

"Why am I the one who always stays alive? Why do people have to sacrifice themselves for me? I'm not worth it! My life is not worth so much pain. I should have been the one to die. Maybe there's still time to put an end to the pain.""Shinji!"I gasped as I felt Misato's hand hitting my cheek."Don't you ever say that, Shinji! Don't even dare think about it! If you die now, then all the sacrifice and suffering your friends went through would become meaningless! Don't disgrace them!"The words hit me even harder then her hand. I had never thought about things this way.

In Reflections, Princess Luna does this to a grief-stricken Princess Celestia.

In Relationships Series, Nanoha gets one from Vita as she becomes hysterical about the prospect of Yuuno dying on a mission, and Vita reminds her that Yuuno is determined to get back safely.

In Fail to the King!, Almaz is subjected to this trope twice: Once in Chapter one to snap him out of his three-day long Heroic B.S.O.D., and again in a later chapter to prevent another from surfacing in the middle of an invasion. Both played largely for laughs, naturally - this is a Disgaea fic after all.

In The Second Try, Asuka delivers this trope almost word for word to Shinji in chapter 2, thankfully without the slapping. It is possible that had this occurred before the Third Impact, she would have slapped him, but she was probably afraid to (given what happened during instrumentality, and the fact he's the only other person left on earth).

At one point during his side story of the Pony POV Series, Shining Armor has to get headbutted by Captain Baseplate when he freaks out over the existence of the SAS (Equestrian Black Ops).

A Future of Friendship, A History of Hate: During the climax of Episode 5, Scootaloo, who passed the Despair Event Horizon when she realized that her wish to be an adult not only blew up in her face but also enabled Miserain to empower a woebeghoul, which is now destroying Ponyville, states it would be better if she had never been born. Rainbow Dash responds by smacking her, telling her to never belittle herself like that again, and giving a Rousing Speech that pulls Scootaloo back to normal and enables her to help Dash destroy the woebeghoul.

In Post Nuptials, Twilight floors Shining Armor with a punch to the face when, in the midst of a Heroic B.S.O.D., he considers canceling the wedding.

In White Devil of the Moon, Nanoha's in the middle of a Heroic B.S.O.D. after finally confirming that she is the resurrected Princess Serenity, that her past life was just one big colossal failure, that the Senshi's sacrifices were in vain becauseSerenity killed herself in grief, that this is could have been avoided if Queen Serenity did better in teaching Princess Serenity and that all of these memories are driving her to the point where she isn't sure where Serenity ends and she starts. Fate solves this problem by making her feelings known and kissing her.

In Mega Man: Defender of the Human Race, Roll does this to Mega in episode 11, slapping him and lecturing him back to his senses—though it takes more than that to fully convince him.

In Despair's Last Resort, Ryouta Hoshino begins to get overly paranoid and hostile after learning the news that someone among them is working for Monokuma. This leads him to get into a fight with Kazumi Katsuya the next morning. It looks like she's about to beat him up, but then Kumiko Akamine gives him a well-deserved punch to the face and tells him to stop acting paranoid and acting like an ass.

Ragnarok: Alright, Crona, you listen to me, and you listen to me good. Get up. On your feet. After all that stuff we talked about, don’t turn into a hypocrite. I ain’t scared no more, I’m ready for this! You shouldn’t be either. I’m with you! Albarn’s with you! Hell, if everyone else was here, I’m sure they’d have pom-poms at the ready too! So what if you’re not completely human? I’m not either! You gotta learn not to take everyone’s crap at face value. It’s like what Albarn is saying – you’re you! Can’t anybody change that!

In Ace Attorney fanfic Turnabout Blue EarthIris of all people gives one to Apollo after he learns that his client is responsible for murder, although not the one she's accused of, and he refuses to continue defending her, despite case being far from over.

In the 21st chapter of Old West, Beans has to slap Rango when he's angsting over the upcoming court with the Big Bad.

In This Bites!, Cross delivers one to Chopper to snap him out of his Mad Doctor alternate persona. Given that this seems the most effective way to do so, and that Chopper's research is actually useful, Chopper receives a lot of them as the story goes.

In Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide, Shinji breaks down into a full-on panic attack from witnessing Maya getting shot by the JSSDF as they are invading the Geofront; Asuka slaps him to get him to snap out of it and focus on helping her find a way to escape.

Miller: She is Piggy, Miller's Daughter. And I am her father, Miller, Piggy's Father, your Majesty. No, wait I am not the majesty, You're the majesty, and this is my daughter, Piggy, and this is— (Loyal Royal Advisor backhands him)Miller: Thanks, I needed that.

On an episode of the short lived MTV series Super Adventure Team, Chief Engineer Head literally slapped Dr. Criswell blind trying to get him to snap out of his funk.

In the "Give Me Your Money" number from Avenue Q, Nicky refuses to give up his money by ranting "I can't! I need it! I'm homeless! I can't! I need it! I'm homeless! I can't...." until Princeton slaps him. Nicky calmly hands over the money then.

During the Sicily campaign, General George S. Patton slapped a soldier suffering from shell shock in two separate incidents. One was later found to be suffering from malaria, the other was Just Following Orders after repeatedly requesting to stay with his unit. It almost ended Patton's career, proving that this isn't a good idea to try for real.

As a side note, the soldier Patton slapped later said, "He was probably pretty well worn out himself." Combat can do strange things to people. Patton's popularity and effectiveness as a battle commander saved him.

It doesn't work if it is "shell shock" (PTSD) either. Anyone who's been in the Armed Forces can tell you that, combat experience or not. A person that far gone has usually spent themselves keeping a hold for as long as they have.

This was parodied during the extensive Patton movie pastiche in The Simpsons episode "Bart the General". Bart does it, but Grampa scolds him:

Grampa: You can push them out of a plane, you can march them off a cliff, you can send them off to die on some God-forsaken rock, but for some reason you can't slap them.

In some sects of Zen Buddhism, a monk walks the room during meditation sessions with a light, flat stick. When a meditating monk loses his focus because he starts to get tired, he will lean forward to get a light slap between the shoulder blades with the stick, which triggers the reaction to make him fully awake again.

This practice is the premise behind one of the microgames in WarioWare: Smooth Moves: You play as the supervising monk and must do a quick slapping motion with the Wii Remote whenever he passes by a monk nodding off or not paying attention to put them back in line.

Alternative Title(s):Bright Slap, Get A Hold Of Yourself Woman, Pull Yourself Together

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